Most media devices, such as music players and video players, have a headphone jack for allowing a set of earphones or headphones to be used to deliver sound to a user. With the use of earphones or headphones, the user is able to enjoy the audio portion of a set of media content in private, without disturbing the people around the user. The use of earphones or headphones also allows quality sound to be delivered to the user without the need for cumbersome external speakers.
Currently, to control whether audio content is provided by a media device to a set of earphones or headphones, the controls on the media device are used. That is, to start, stop, or alter the delivery of the audio content to the earphones or headphones, a user usually has to manually manipulate the controls that are on the media device. Some earphones and headphones now come with controls that a user can use to send control signals to the media device. With these earphones or headphones, the user can control the media device without physically accessing the controls of the media device. In either of these cases, however, in order to control the delivery of the audio content to the earphones or headphones, the user has to manually manipulate at least some set of controls.
This can be inconvenient and bothersome in some instances. For example, suppose that a user is using a set of earphones that does not have controls for sending control signals to the media device, and that the media device that is providing audio content to the earphones is in the user's pocket. Suppose further that a colleague wishes to speak with the user. Before beginning the conversation, the user has to fumble around in his/her pocket to find the media device, invoke the proper control on the media device to pause or stop delivery of the audio content, and remove the earphones from his/her ears. All the while, the colleague is waiting. After the conversation, the user has to reinsert the earphones in his/her ears, invoke the proper control on the media device to restart the delivery of the audio content, and put the media device back in his/her pocket. This can be inconvenient enough for just one interruption, but if the user is interrupted frequently by colleagues, this process of finding the media device and invoking its controls can quickly become tedious and bothersome.